Nina Frances Layard
Encyclopedia
Nina Frances Layard was an English
poetess, prehistorian, archaeologist and antiquary who made many important discoveries, and by winning the respect of contemporary academics helped to establish a role for women in her field of expertise. She was one of the first four women to be admitted as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
, in the first year of admission, and was admitted Fellow of the Linnean Society in the second year of women's admission. She was the first woman to be President of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia.
(excavator of Nineveh
and Nimrud
), Edgar Leopold Layard
(Curator of the South Africa Museum at Cape Town
, and Governor of Fiji
), and of Lady Charlotte Guest
(Translator of the Mabinogion
and collector of ceramics). Nina's grandfather Brownlow Villiers Layard was aide-de-camp and afterwards (1802) private chaplain to the Duke of Kent
(and brother of the Governors of Malta
and Curaçao
and of Lady Lindsey
), and was the son of a Dean of Bristol
and grandson of the accoucheur Daniel Peter Layard. C.C. Layard was also first cousin (on his mother's side) of Lady Llanover (of the Welsh
cultural revival), being the son of Louisa Port, sister of Georgiana (favoured grandniece of Mrs Delany
and companion of Fanny Burney
), and therefore a descendant of Bernard Granville of Calwich and of Sir Richard Grenville of 'The Revenge
'. Nina Layard's mother Sarah Somes was sister of the MPs Samuel Somes and Joseph Somes, who in the 1830s were the largest ship-owners in London and held contracts for convict shipping to Australia. Nina Layard was a sister of the essayist and litterateur George Somes Layard, and therefore the aunt of John Willoughby Layard, psychologist and anthropologist.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
poetess, prehistorian, archaeologist and antiquary who made many important discoveries, and by winning the respect of contemporary academics helped to establish a role for women in her field of expertise. She was one of the first four women to be admitted as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
, in the first year of admission, and was admitted Fellow of the Linnean Society in the second year of women's admission. She was the first woman to be President of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia.
Family connections
Nina Layard was the fourth child of Charles Clement Layard and his wife Sarah, née Somes. Her father was first cousin (on his father's side) of Sir Austen Henry LayardAusten Henry Layard
Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB, PC was a British traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud.-Family:...
(excavator of Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
and Nimrud
Nimrud
Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris in modern Ninawa Governorate Iraq. In ancient times the city was called Kalḫu. The Arabs called the city Nimrud after the Biblical Nimrod, a legendary hunting hero .The city covered an area of around . Ruins of the city...
), Edgar Leopold Layard
Edgar Leopold Layard
Edgar Leopold Layard CMG, FZS, MBOU was a British naturalist mainly interested in ornithology. Born in Florence, Italy, to a family of Huguenot descent, he was the sixth son of Henry Peter John Layard of the Ceylon Civil Service with his wife Marianne,...
(Curator of the South Africa Museum at Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, and Governor of Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
), and of Lady Charlotte Guest
Lady Charlotte Guest
Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest, , later Lady Charlotte Schreiber, was an English businesswoman and translator...
(Translator of the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
and collector of ceramics). Nina's grandfather Brownlow Villiers Layard was aide-de-camp and afterwards (1802) private chaplain to the Duke of Kent
Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
The Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn was a member of the British Royal Family, the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria...
(and brother of the Governors of Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
and Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
and of Lady Lindsey
Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey
Lieutenant-General Albemarle Bertie, 9th Earl of Lindsey was a British nobleman and general.He was the son of Peregrine Bertie, a barrister and great-great-grandson of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey....
), and was the son of a Dean of Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
and grandson of the accoucheur Daniel Peter Layard. C.C. Layard was also first cousin (on his mother's side) of Lady Llanover (of the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
cultural revival), being the son of Louisa Port, sister of Georgiana (favoured grandniece of Mrs Delany
Mary Delany
Mary Delany was an English Bluestocking, artist, and letter-writer; equally famous for her "paper-mosaicks" and her lively correspondence.-Early life:...
and companion of Fanny Burney
Fanny Burney
Frances Burney , also known as Fanny Burney and, after her marriage, as Madame d’Arblay, was an English novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now King’s Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to musical historian Dr Charles Burney and Mrs Esther Sleepe Burney...
), and therefore a descendant of Bernard Granville of Calwich and of Sir Richard Grenville of 'The Revenge
HMS Revenge (1577)
Revenge was an English race-built galleon of 46 guns, built in 1577 and captured by the Spanish in 1591, sinking soon afterwards. She was the first of thirteen English and Royal Navy ships to bear the name.Since she was built and served prior to the English Restoration of 1660, she did not carry...
'. Nina Layard's mother Sarah Somes was sister of the MPs Samuel Somes and Joseph Somes, who in the 1830s were the largest ship-owners in London and held contracts for convict shipping to Australia. Nina Layard was a sister of the essayist and litterateur George Somes Layard, and therefore the aunt of John Willoughby Layard, psychologist and anthropologist.
Sources
- S.J. Plunkett 1994, Nina Layard, Hadleigh Road and Ipswich MuseumIpswich MuseumIpswich Museum is a registered museum of culture, history and natural heritage located on High Street in Ipswich, the County Town of the English county of Suffolk...
1905-1908, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of ArchaeologySuffolk Institute of ArchaeologyThe Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History is the County Archaeological Society for the County of Suffolk, UK. It was established as the Bury and West Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, at Bury St Edmunds in 1848, but acquired a function for the two counties of West and East Suffolk in 1853...
38, 164–192. - S.J. Plunkett 1995, Nina Layard and the Sub-Crag committee of 1910, in A. Longcroft and R. Joby (Eds), East Anglian Studies — Essays presented to J C Barringer (Norwich, Marwood), 211–222.
- S.J. Plunkett 1997, Hamlet WatlingHamlet WatlingHamlet Watling was a Suffolk-born antiquary whose professional career was as a schoolmaster....
1818-1908: artist and antiquary, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology 39, 48–75. - S.J. Plunkett 1999, Nina Frances Layard, Prehistorian (1835-1953), in W Davies and R Charles (Eds), Dorothy GarrodDorothy GarrodDorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod CBE was a British archaeologist who was the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair, partly through her pioneering work on the Palaeolithic period. Her father was Sir Archibald Garrod, the physician.-Life:Born in Oxford, she attended Newnham College, Cambridge...
and the Progress of the Palaeolithic: Studies in the palaeolithic archaeology of the Near East and Europe (Oxford: Oxbow), 242–262. ISBN 1-900188-87-2. - M. White and S.J. Plunkett, 2005, Miss Layard Excavates: a Palaeolithic site at Foxhall Road, Ipswich, 1903–1905 (Western Academic and Specialist Press: Liverpool). ISBN 09535418-8-6.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.